With the advances in today's fast food industry it has become very desirable to prepare and sell food products that are easily prepared and served. One of the more popular food items in this regard is the taco which is a hard crisp folded tortilla patty stuffed with ground meat, lettuce, tomato and cheese. Although this particular food product is easily prepared and served, it is extremely messy to eat as the stuffing matter has a tendency to fall out the opened ends of the folded tortilla patty. In an attempt to solve this problem, it has been found that a cone-shaped crisp tortilla patty is very effective because it is not easily subject to having stuffing matter fall out as the cone shaped product is eaten.
As it is highly desirable to serve a taco type food product in a crisp tortilla patty having a cone shape that is easily prepared, there have been many different types and kinds of apparatus and techniques for making tortilla cones. For example, reference may be made to the following U.S Pat. Nos. 1,079,597; 1,274,506; 3,424,076; 3,604,342; and Des. 292,940.
While such prior known devices may have been successful for some applications, it has been difficult, if not impossible, to make a tortilla or taco cone with a closed tip end in a simple and efficient manner. In this regard, for example, when a tortilla is folded or rolled into a cone shape, it is very difficult to create a closed end at the apex of the cone. In this regard, with the tip end open, the food contents of the edible cone can fall or drip therefrom in a messy, unsatisfactory manner.
Therefore, it is frequently necessary after cooking the tortilla patty into a crisp hard shell having a general conical shape, to stuff the inner end portion of the cone with a solid, non-dripping type food, such as a piece of room temperature cheese or the like, to seal over the open end, and thus to assure that the food filling placed within the taco cone, does not drip or fall out of its open bottom end.
Such a make-shift solution is not entirely satisfactory, because it requires additional preparation tip and it is not sufficiently accurate to assure that the tip of the cone is always closed by the cheese.
Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have a new and improved kit and method for making and using the kit to make a taco cone with a closed apex to eliminate the careful stuffing thereof. Such a kit should be relatively inexpensive to manufacture, and should be used in a convenient manner. In this regard, it would be highly desirable to have a method which is fast and efficient to execute, so as to minimize the time and effort involved.
Some attempts have been made to create a taco cone with a closed apex. One such attempted technique disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,604,343 includes using a mold having a conical body about which a tortilla patty may be wrapped in cone form with the opposite edges of the tortilla patty overlapping. In this manner, the cone is formed at its apex in a substantially closed manner, and then it is clamped at the overlapping portions of the tortilla to hold it in place on the cone body. The cone forming device with the clamped tortilla patty is then suspended in a vessel of hot cooking oil to cook the patty.
While such an attempt may well produce a taco cone, it appears that such a technique may well be less than totally satisfactory, in that it requires a complex and awkward clamping technique in an attempt to close the apex of the cone that is not fast and efficient, nor convenient to use. Moreover, the device and technique does not produce a closed apex shell because of the round tortilla patty used in the process. Neither does the device and technique readily lend itself to modern mass production techniques that could minimize time and effort.
Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have a new and improved kit and method of using the kit, for overcoming the problems associated with using clamps. In this respect, the inventive kit should not require the utilization of cumbersome clamps, and it should be usable by novice and inexperienced operators in a fast efficient manner both in the home and in a fast food restaurant.
Another attempted solution to the concerns associated with the prior art is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,424,076 and includes using a two piece mold. The mold includes a carriage tray having a plurality of conical-shaped wire female receptacle baskets for receiving one or more pliable tortillas rolled in a cone shape. A male retaining member is utilized to fit concentrically within the female receptacles. This assembly is then submerged into a vessel of hot cooking oil to cook the tortilla patties.
This attempt has also proven less than satisfactory, in that only a few taco cones may be formed and cooked at one time. Also when using the open female receptacle, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to ensure that a closed apex is formed with the edges of the pliable tortilla overlapped, because the operator must completely release the pliable tortilla in the female receptacle prior to inserting the male member within the female receptacle.
Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have a new and improved kit and method of using it, which reduces greatly, if not eliminates entirely, the apex hole problem, and which also renders the cone forming operation precise and controllable so that each cone formed will have a substantially closed apex. Moreover such a kit should be highly efficient and convenient to use, so that a large number of taco cones may be cooked at one time.